Electronics Weekly Electronics Design & Components Tech News
Sir Robin Saxby
He writes:
During my lifetime we’ve gone from 50 transistors on a chip to billions –enabling mobile phones which today facilitate people’s daily existence.
This technology also helps people in poorer communities to make a living from online transactions, as well as to monitor and improve health.
The internet allows most of the world to be connected 24/7 in real time.
Huge leaps in life‑science, particularly in understanding the human genome, will converge with our knowledge of basic science, as human beings intersect with machines for more amazing lifetime experiences and a dramatic increase in life expectancy.
Unfortunately the progress here has not been matched by an upgrading of law, ethics, finance and political systems. We need to move to a fairer society for our survival.
Technology creates an opportunity to help poorer people help themselves, but it needs collaboration between, charities, businesses and governments.
Whether a start‑up or an established company, you need to be the world’s best at everything you do. This means partnership is essential to help address complexity.
Businesses benefit from creating and addressing large markets, so recognising the potential for disruptive change is important. Teaming with the best people globally and understanding and responding to the voice of ‘leading teaching customers’ is a good tip to help refine your technology ideas.
I’ve often said that every problem is an opportunity in disguise and if we are smart as we emerge from the pandemic problems I hope we can reject some old bad habits and address a brighter future.
Key areas for growth are improved communication, better handling and processing of data, smarter and more real‑life infotainment, robotics and autonomous vehicles, more efficient energy creation, smarter medical devices and assisted living, and help with aging. Since I retired from Arm in 2007, I have backed people and ideas I believe in. These include start‑ups I am invested in, for example:
- micro LEDs for wearable glasses, with Plessey
- machine learning with Graphcore
- high speed wireless with BluWireless
- magnetically‑controlled free piston engines for charging electric vehicles, with Libertine.
I am also assisting collaboration between charities, governments, venture capitalists, academia and companies.
Thinking differently and enabling change will be more challenging in the next 60 years than the last. I am lucky to be still having fun in these areas with friends like Nigel [Toon] and Dick [Skipworth]. Congratulations to Electronics Weekly on its 60th anniversary and for your support over the years.
Wishing you a great next 60 years.
